Brig Naseem Akhtar R, Author at Pakistan Observer

Reading region’s emerging security order

WHILE discussing the regional security order, perhaps the most important question confronting us today is not simply what happens next, but whether we are…

National security beyond immediate threats

NATIONAL security depends not only on recognizing threats that demand immediate attention, but also on understanding the less visible developments that may shape the…

Once upon a time: Some reflections from past

FOR several days, I remained uncertain about what to call this article. I knew what I wanted to write about: the deepening security and…

When security sensitivities become vulnerabilities

EVERY society has issues that require careful handling. National identity, ethnicity, regional grievances, internal security, economic anxiety and fear of external conflict can carry…

Threats to national security

THE gravest threats to national security rarely appear out of nowhere. More often, they announce themselves quietly through small, scattered and apparently unrelated developments…

World becoming harder to predict

After a lifetime of watching conflicts unfold, crises build and decisions being made in the shadows, I have learned to distrust one thing more…

Pakistan’s security: External pressures, internal fault lines

THE battlefield is no longer military. Security competition today operates simultaneously through military power, economics, technology, information, narratives and diplomacy. A conflict thousands of…

Independence beyond celebration Winning the Battle for the National Mind

AS Pakistan marks its Independence Day, 14 August should be more than a day of flags and celebration. It should also be a moment of…

Warning-decision gap: The changing face of strategic surprise

For decades, scholars of intelligence and strategic studies have sought to explain why states continue to suffer strategic surprise despite investing enormous re-sources in intelligence…